1001 Ways to Reward Employees

Helps managers take certain rewards and mold them into new management styles at their companies. The author polled companies about their favorite recognition practices, no matter how small, and came up with a gold mine.

Workman Publishing Company. 352pp. Paperback. Cost: $10.36

1001 Ways to Take Initiative at Work

Latest ideas on how to recognize employees and build momentum in the work force.

Workman Publishing C. 240pp. Paperback. Cost: $10.95

301 Ways to Have Fun at Work

This book present hundreds of methods and activities that incorporate fun in an organization's work: hiring, training sessions, meetings, communications, awards, and teamwork. The authors asked successful businesspeople worldwide if fun played a part in their corporate culture--and, if so, how it was actually manifested in everyday life.

Berrett-Koehler Publishers. 245pp. Paperback. Cost: $12.21

<i>Engagement: Winning the Battle for Customer and Employee Hearts and Minds</i>: The Spillover Effect

Measuring the success of a business is not as simple as saying: ‘happy employees equal happy customers.’ Happy employees can also be lazy employees. A person taking tickets at a movie theater may be happy, but it may be because he or she gets to sit around on a comfortable chair while drinking free soft drinks and eating free popcorn. Many people might be happy if their employers paid them for what is merely time spent drinking soda, eating popcorn and collecting ticket stubs.

For the above saying to be true, companies should be looking at levels of engagement as the measuring stick. We know that emotionally engaged employees feel like they are doing something valuable for their organizations and that their efforts will make a difference. Customers know when they are talking to emotionally engaged employees. The positive feelings that the employees have about their jobs and employers influence the level of service they give to customers. When these positive experiences continue to happen, then customers become engaged, and they become advocates for the company’s products and services.

While movie theaters may be an easy target when it comes to pointing out the signs of disengaged employees, it’s certainly not exclusive to this business. Employees across all industries have a major impact on customer loyalty and engagement. The mantra of ‘happy employees equal happy customers’ is real, and companies should seek emotionally engaged employees because it will be these employees who help create emotionally engaged customers.

This is the spillover effect.

Allegiance .

<i>The Enemy of Engagement</i>: Put an End to Workplace Frustration--and Get the Most from Your Employees

Frustrated employees represent 20% or more of the total workforce, leading to a major loss in performance, talent and revenue. Frustration wears down motivated, dedicated employees who really care about their jobs but can’t get the organizational support they need to get things done. Focused on making contributions, these employees often hide their frustration, leaving managers in the dark about their discontent. “Frustrated employees really want to succeed in their role, but become aggravated by organizational barriers or a lack of resources,” says Mark Royal, Senior Consultant at Hay Group and co-author of the new book The Enemy of Engagement. “Managers must ask the right questions and address the issue promptly, or risk losing top talent who care deeply about the organization.” Royal’s co-author and colleague, Tom Agnew, says that frustration isn’t just an employee issue, it’s an organizational issue, adding that “Managers must listen for clues and serve as the voice for frustrated employees.” For more information on The Enemy of Engagement, contact Andrea Friedman at 212-584-5476 or Andrea@blisspr.com

240 pp. Cost: $16.22

Best Face Forward: Why Companies Must Improve Their Service Interfaces With Customers

Best Face Forward talks about obtaining success through employee motivation. This book reveals how to determine the optimal division of labor between people and machines, discover innovative ways to combine people and machines to mediate critical customer interactions, and more.

Harvard Business School Press. 262pp. Hardcover. Cost: $24.05

Best Practices : Building Your Business with Customer-Focused Solutions

Best Practices shares how more than forty best-practices companies focus on their customers, create growth, reduce cost, and increase profts. It focuses on customers and how to involve them in everything from the design of products and services to marketing, selling, and product delivery. This book is good for managers in any business, in any industry.

Touchstone. 240pp. Paperback. Cost: Varies with seller

Best Sales Promotions

Reviews 126 of the best recent sales promotion campaigns. Readers will develop a better understanding of what constitutes a successful promotion and of what a good promotion can—and can't—do. A straightforward book that is useful for readers with all levels of experience.

McGraw-Hill Companies. 240pp. Paperback.

Blur: The Speed of Change in the Connected Economy

Blur explores the emerging economic landscape where knowledge and imagination are more valubale than physical capital. Authors, Davis and Meyer, challenge readers to question their assumptions they know about business and to experiment at the edges of business.

Warner Books. 288pp. Paperback. Cost: $17.99

Bringing Out the Best in People: How to Apply the Astonishing Power of Positive Reinforcement

This book tells how to use a behavior-based performance management system to transform employees' work into something they are willing—even eager—to do. Offers the newest strategies used by companies like Xerox, 3M, and Kodak.

McGraw-Hill. 245pp. Hardcover. Cost: $14.93

Care Packages for the Workplace: Dozens of Little Things You Can Do To Regenerate Spirit at Work

This book is full of motivational ideas that will enliven communication, increase employee appreciation, and add fun to the workplace.

McGraw-Hill. 222pp. Paperback. Cost: $10.17

Compensation for Teams: How to Design and Implement Team-Based Reward Programs

Managers looking for a team approach will find particular satisfaction here. The author looks at the critical issue of aligning an organization's compensation, culture, and strategy, and then delves into the steps involved with designing and implementing team-based reward systems. Chapters cover such issues as incentive compensation, recognition awards, and the architecture of team pay.

AMACOM. 259pp. Hardcover.

Contented Cows Give Better Milk: The Plain Truth About Employee Relations and Your Bottom Line

This book makes the case that companies that treat their employees right make more money.

Contented Cow Partners. 208pp. Paperback. Cost: $18.00

Creating a Total Rewards Strategy

Described by the publisher as a "toolkit for designing business based plans," this book provides a highly detailed approach to implementing a total rewards strategy. Literally every step of the process is detailed, with specific examples, Includes a CD.

Amacom, American Management Association . 352pp. Hardcover .

Creating a Total Rewards Strategy: A Toolkit for Designing Business-Based Plans

Salary, bonuses, benefits and "perks" may be the most visible elements of a rewards program, but other components are just as valuable to employees. This comprehensive book and CD-ROM package shows how nonfinancial rewards can be quantified and combined with monetary measures in a way that complements business objectives. The authors' eye-opening research on what employees value is backed up by examples from their own consulting experience. The book's step-by-step process features more than 100 practical tools for developing an "M3" rewards system based on money, mix, and message, and provides a blueprint for creating a custom-tailored rewards strategy to match an organization's specific goals.

American Management Association. 352pp. Hardcover.

Exceeding Customer Expectations

Based on the business practices and history of Enterprise Rent-a-Car, this book focuses on how the company has achieved financial results by creating happy customers, successful business partnerships, and an engaged and motivated workforce. It discusses the relationship between the company's employee satisfaction, retention, and profitability, and shows how Enterprise makes and reinforces those connections.

Currency . 256pp. Hardcover . Cost: $16.47

Four Elements of Successful Management

This book addresses basic management issues applicable to almost any organization and manager. It provides a simple approach summarized as "select, direct, evaluate, and reward," but is in no way short of details. It includes extensive information on every aspect of the process, including benefits of cash and noncash awards.

Amacom. 208pp. Hardcover . Cost: $14.96

Good Company: Caring as Fiercely as You Compete

This book looks at how companies can profit from a commitment to a corporate culture characterized by collaboration, innovation, and joy at work.

Perseus Books. 205 pp. Hardcover.

How to Design & Implement a Results-Oriented Variable Pay System

Here's a detailed process for implementing profit sharing, gain-sharing, and goal sharing. You'll get a step-by-step approach that includes organizing the design team, establishing baselines and measurement tools, and determining the frequency and methods of payout. Chapters cover: multi-tiered and small-group systems, selecting and evaluating measures, assigning values to gains or goals, establishing baselines, and sharing the gains. You'll find more implementation details than in many business books.

American Management Association. 248pp. Hardcover. Cost: $44.00

How to Motivate People: The Team Strategy for Success

How to Motivate People explains the principles of successful motivation through author, Tarkenton's, P.R.I.C.E (Pinpointing, Recording, Invovlement, Consequences, Evaluation) program. This book shows you how to identify motivational stumbling blacks, track performance levels, inspire participation in setting goals and achieving objectives, plus much more.

Harpercollins. 243pp. Hardcover.

How to Run an Incentive Program

A booklet published by Incentive magazine that details how to structure incentive programs.

How to Run Successful Employee Incentive Schemes

Offers practical advice for managers on incentive methods such as cash and non-cash reward systems; incentive travel; events; recognition systems; and flexible benefits.

Kogan Page. Paperback. Cost: Currently unavailable

Incentives in Marketing & Motivation

A comprehensive text on the incentive marketplace. The content is illustrated and includes numerous case studies that reveal the breadth and potential of the incentive marketplace.

Kendall/Hunt Publishing Company. 512pp. Paperback.

Innovative Reward Systems for the Changing Workplace

Although several years old, this book takes a thorough look at reward systems in the context of today's customer- and performance-based management styles. The author tells how to: make pay relate to achievement, foster a sense of stake in the company, update the traditional performance appraisal process, and measure customer-based performance.

McGraw-Hill. 350pp. Hardcover.

Light Their Fire: Using Internal Marketing to Ignite Employee Performance and Wow Your Customers

Light Their Fire discusses how employee communications is the key to delivering on solidifying customer relationships. This book will teach you how to identify the varying perspectives of different audiences, tailor your messages for maximum effectiveness, and much more.

Kaplan Business. 272pp. Hardcover. Cost: $15.64